Bud Rodecker

Titles

Hog Butcher for the World

Tool Maker Stacker of Wheat

Stormy Husky Brawling

City of Big Shoulders

Building Breaking Rebuilding

Description

If I am the sum of my experiences, my work is a reflection of those experiences. Each piece a small autobiography; a story of where I was living, of what I was thinking, of what fascinated me at the time. My small body of work is a disparate collection of parts, which, when assembled, makes me whole.

Ode to Carl

“Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.”

In 2010 I started a project called RicharDaily. I challenged myself to make one thing every day for a year. Out of this exploration I began a series based on the poem “Chicago” by Carl Sandburg. In early 2011 I turned this idea into a poster series.

At a time when Chicago has a new mayor for the first time in 20 years, Ode to Carl pays homage to Chicago’s roots. It honors Carl Sandburg and brings his words to a new audience.

Showing Ode to Carl in typeforce alongside such tal­­­ented friends and artists validates my time spent exploring for RicharDaily. It gives Chicago’s designers and artists a space to share the fruits of our hard work with each other, and allows for type to speak in a whole new way.

Biography

Bud Rodecker is a graphic designer, photographer, artist, thinker, talker, and jokester. He collaborates with John Pobojewski and Rick Valicenti at Thirst. Multidisciplinary and experimental, Bud’s work is unified by an emphasis on typography and strong graphics.

At Thirst he designed Archeworks’s publication Works, along with aw—a custom font based on Akzidenz Grotesk and inspired by Bell Centennial. Following the success of Works, Thirst was asked to create a film to showcase in the U.S. Pavilion at the 2010 Venice Biennale. Directed by Valicenti and animated by Pobejewski and Rodecker, Gather Give Grow represented Archeworks and Chicago at this internationally renowned exhibition. Rodecker’s poster work has been accepted into the Chicago Design Archive, the Chicago Poster Biennial, and has earned a platinum award from Graphis.

Outside the office Rodecker continues to explore design and the process of creativity. He’s created political t-shirts and posters that have been featured in print, online, and at Chicago’s Printervention show. With RicharDaily, a personal project initiated in 2010, Rodecker set out to generate a year’s worth of art and design exploration, some of which is exhibited in Typeforce 2. Rodecker has participated in numerous design-related talks, workshops, and panels—sharing his unique perspective on design and the creative process.

Rodecker earned a degree in Graphic Design with a minor in photography from the University of Minnesota Duluth. Following graduation in May 2007, he came to Chicago to begin his career at Thirst.